A long talk about complicated feelings
In lesbian films, as in lesbian life, there are a lot of feelings to be discussed. The preferred locale is a coffee shop (not as loud as a bar) but the deep and meaningfuls can also take place in the bath, on long walks or on the sofa – as here, with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right

The pensive walk in a dark forest
Women love nature, particularly forests, and particularly forests in which they can walk dramatically and talk about their feelings, or maybe steal a forbidden kiss in a leafy enclave (not a euphemism) - like this one in My Summer of Love

The long, chatty bath for two
In the male gay movie, you have the long shower scene. If there is exposition needed in the lesbian movie, then expect a scene in which two women get into the bath, scrub down and talk about their feelings - like Elizabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow in Secret Ceremony

The spontaneous outdoor swim
Alternatively, you can combine woodland and water by leaping recklessly into an open-air pool and splashing around a bit. Emily Blunt and Nathalie Press did it arthouse style in My Summer of Love; Neve Campbell and Denise Richards did it non-arthouse style in Wild Things

The tragic, high-concept death
Not all gay films end in the girl getting the girl at some giant fantasy Center Parks cafe (coffee, forests, baths, swimming). Sometimes being gay is hard, and there are doomy, don’t-watch-on-a-Sunday films to reflect this, such as Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art

Bottomless hate turning to uncontainable lust
Trashcore classic Showgirls is the epitome of this trope, in which two headstrong opposites (played by Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Berkley) realise that their passionate loathing of one another is actually a front for strong gay feelings

Sudden-onset homosexuality
This well-worn plot device involves a previously heterosexual woman having a surprising revelation that she is attracted to the gay-leaning free spirit who has suddenly entered her life. It's mostly limited to the alt romcom with aspirations towards quirk - like Kissing Jessica Stein

A cameo by Chloë Sevigny/Piper Perabo/Clea DuVall
If any of the above women is in the cast, there is likely to be some talk about feelings. After Boys Don’t Cry, Chloë Sevigny straddled a motorbike in If These Walls Could Talk 2; and in 90s teen alien film The Faculty, Clea DuVall even plays a character pretending to be a lesbian

A discerningly indie/retro soundtrack
Kissing Jessica Stein went for the Woody Allen jazz feel. Grungey 90s riot grrrl romance All Over Me featured Sleater-Kinney and Babes in Toyland. More recently, Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are Alright had a very Pitchfork-friendly roster, then named a character after Joni Mitchell

Generally not being very good
There are plenty of decent films with gay content – but if there is a possibility of two female characters getting off with each other, lesbians will also watch any old rubbish - even if the dialogue is as bad as season six of The L Word.

Following our roundup of the top 10 gay-movie cliches earlier this week, Rebecca Nicholson reveals the top lesbian tropes – including high-concept deaths, sudden-onset homosexuality and spontaneous skinny-dipping